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WHY  ARE  THE  HAWAIIANS  DYING  OUT? 

OR,  ELEMENTS  OF  DISABILITY  FOR  SURVIVAL 
AMONG    THE    HAWAIIAN    PEOPLE. 


By  Rev.  S.  E.   Bishop. 

[Read  to  Honolulu  Social  Science  Association,   Novembei,   1888. 1 

Mr.  Darwin  supplied  an  expression  which  has  been  much 
in  vogue,  "The  survival  of  the  fittest."  This  is  scarcely  ap- 
plicable in  the  present  case,  since  in  Hawaii  nei  there  is  no 
competitive  "struggle  for  existence"  between  weaker  and 
stronger  races  of  men.  The  Hawaiian  Islands  have  been 
far  more  than  sufficiently  productive  for  the  ample  supply  of 
the  needs  of  all  the  people  living  here  since  the  beginning  of 
this  century.  So  far  all  the  different  races  have  lived  in 
plenty,  and  in  amity  with  each  other.  A  crowded  condition 
might  be  conceived  as  possible  in  the  future,  when  the  thrifty 
and  capable  classes  would  push  the  inefficient  and  improvi- 
dent classes  into  penury.  In  such  case,  one  would  think 
the  Chinese  to  be  the  best  fitted  for  the  "struggle  for  exist- 
ence," and  the  Polynesian  the  least  fitted.  The  former  in- 
herits an  education  of  hundreds  of  generations  in  living  on 
the  minimum  of  necessaries,  also  an  unequaled  patience  of 
industry  and  tactful  thriftiness  for  procuring  those  necessa- 
ries. The  latter,  thriftless  and  indolent  in  comparison, 
would  be  crowded  out  of  the  land. 

[  No  such  conditions  exist.  There  is  no  struggle  to  find 
Subsistence.  One  race  is  as  fit  to  survive  as  another,  so  far 
as  obtaining  a  living  is  concerned,  in  a  country  where  the 
wages  of  one  day's  unskilled  labor  will  purchase  all  indis- 
pensable food  and  raiment  for  a  whole  week.  Neither  is 
the  climate  of  Hawaii  less  favorable  to  the  health  of  one  race 
than  to  that  of  another.  It  is  comparatively  a  perfect  cli- 
mate, absolutely  devoid  of  extremes  of  temperature,  free 
from  humidity,  swept  by  the  ever  purging  ocean  airs,  and 
seemingly  incapable  of  long  harboring  malarial  or  zymotic 

965641 


diseases.     Possibly  an  Esquimaux  might  not  thrive  here. 
For  all  other  races,  it  is  an  Eden  in  salubrity. 

Yet  it  is  the  strange  fact — in  view  of  the  amiable  and  at- 
tractive qualities  of  Polynesians,  the  distressingly  sad  fact— 
that  simultaneously  with  the  arrival  of  white  men  m  these 
islands,  the  Hawaiian  people  began  rapidly  to  melt  away, 
and  that  this  waste  has  continued  up  to  the  present  with 
substantial  steadiness.     At  the  date  of  the  discovery,  Cap- 
tain Cook  estimated  the  population  at  400,000.     Later  his- 
torians have  leaned  to  the  more  moderate  estimate  of  250,- 
000.     My  father  who  was  one  of  the  first  party   of  white 
men  to  travel  around  Hawaii  in   1824,  then  observed  such 
evidences  of  recent   extensive  depopulation  in  all  parts  of 
that  island,  that  he  very  decidedly  supported  the  estimate  of 
Cook.     There  are  now  less  than  40,000  pure  Hawauans  sur- 
viving.    The  later  counts  have  been  taken  with  reasonable 
accuracy.     One  is  led  to  suspect  that  the  earlier  ones  omit- 
ted considerable  numbers,  when  one  observes  the  compara- 
tive sparseness  of  native  population  in  every  district,  as  com- 
pared with  the  relatively  dense  population  fifty  years  ago, 
when  only  125,000  were  counted,  or  little  more  than  three 
times  the   present    number.      With    the    exception    of  the 
towns   of  Honolulu,    Hilo,   and  Wailuku,  every  large  and 
populous  town  in  the  islands  has  dwindled  to  a  hamlet  since 
■  my  boyhood,  and  the  then  frequent  and  considerable  ham- 
lets scattered  everywhere,  have  almost  all  disappeared.  The 
recollections  of  fifty  years  since  are  of  throngs  and  swarms 
of  natives  everywhere.     Yet  even  then  all  the  talk  was  oi 
how  the    islands  had   become  depopulated;   even   then,   in 
travelling,    the    deserted    sites     of    villages     and    hamlets 
with    abandoned    plantations  were   constantly  pointed   out. 
Have  we  now  one  in  six  of  the  ancient  numbers  of  natives, 
or  have  we  only  one  in  ten?     It  is  immaterial;  the  fact  re- 
mains of  an  enormous  depopulation. 

And  yet,  in  the  total  absence  of  any  struggle  for  existence, 
all  the  more  or  less  civilized  races  migrating  here,  appear  to 
thrive  and  multiply  abundantly,  and  the  children  surpass 
their  parents  in  health  and  in  stature.  At  first  sight,  these 
foreigners  do  not  average  as  equal  to  the  Hawaiian.  The 
Chinaman  is  vastly  his  inferior  in  strength,  in  stature,  in 
symmetry,  and  in  apparent  soundness.  But  the  Chinaman 
lives  and  propagates,  while  the  Hawaiian  dies  easily,  and 


leaves  few  or  no  offspring.     The  Caucasian  also  comes  with 
his  family  and  multiplies  amain. 

The  query  then  is,  under  what  peculiar  disabilities  does 
the  Hawaiian  labor,  as  to  vitality  and  power  of  propagation, 
from  which  the  foreign  races  living  here,  are  exempt?  This 
inquiry  is  farther  complicated  by  the  fact  that  these  disabil- 
ities, whatever  they  are,  seem  to  have  first  sprung  into  effi- 
ciency upon  contact  with  the  white  race.  The  coming  of 
that  race  appears  to  have  mtroduced  new  deleterious  influ- 
ence, and  created  new  conditions,  under  which  the  Polyne- 
sian, somewhere  weak,  succumbs.  We  are  to  seek  to  clearly 
define  what  these  unfavorable  conditions  are,  and  wherein 
the  weakness  of  the  native  race  to  withstand  these  adverse 
influences,  consists. 

I  here  limit  our  inquiry  to  the  Hawaiians,  because  with 
this  people  onl}'  do  we  possess  any  intimate  acquaintance. 
A  similar  state  of  things  prevails  more  or  less  throughout 
Polynesia,  and  ultimate  extinction  appears  to  threaten  the 
native  population  of  most  of  the  groups  of  Polynesia.  We 
are  to  endeavor  to  define  the  precise  causes  of  depopula- 
tion. We  should  strive  to  indicate  exactly  what  adverse  in- 
fluences have  been  steadil}^  at  work  for  five  generations  to  kill 
off  the  Hawaiian  people.  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of 
vague  generalization — of  indefinite  talk  about  a  weak  race 
succumbing  tp  the  stronger.  We  want  to  quit  vagueness 
and  generalities,  and  find  the  answer  to  the  question,  "In 
what  respects,  particularly  and  precisely,  are  the  Hawaiian 
people  weaker  than  their  white,  or  their  Mongoloid  guests?" 
This  will  prepare  us  for  the  further  inquiry,  by  what  means 
can  this  weak  race  be  so  invigorated  that  it  will  agam  multi- 
ply? Our  first  effort— perchance  unskilled  and  misdirected, 
is  to  diagnose  the  deadly  malady  which  is  slaying  the  people. 

As  the  leading  and  most  efficient  element  of  weakness  in 
the  Hawaiian  race,  tending  to  phj^sical  decay,  we  predicate: 

1.  Uiichastity.  This  has  always  been  general  among 
females^s"  well  as  males.  The  Hawaiian  female  was,  like 
males  of  other  races,  aggressive  in  solicitation.  It  was 
matter  of  good  form  that  all  proposals  should  be  expressed 
by  the  female.  It  is  still  so,  except  to  the  extent  that  for- 
eign ideas  have  permeated  society.  The  records  of  Cook's 
discovery  of  the  group  indicate  that  state  of  things  as  origi- 
nall}^  existing.  The  account  written  by  Dr.  Ellis,  Cook's 
chief  surgeon,  states  how  at  Kauai  where  they  first  touched, 


Captain  Cook  was  determined,  on  account  of  serious  dis- 
ease among  his  men,  to  permit  no  intercourse  with  the  wo- 
men so  as  not  to  introduce  disease  among  the  Hawaiians. 
It  was,  however,  impracticable  to  prevent  the  women  from 
swarming  over  the  ships.  The  native  account  received  from 
participants  by  the  early  missionaries,  states  that  it  was  ar- 
ranged in  public  council  that  the  women  should  take  this 
course,  as  the  easiest  way  of  obtaming  iron  and  other  prized 
articles  from  the  ships. 

Proceeding  from  Niihau  to  Alaska,  and  returning  nine 
months  later,  Cook's  ships  made  the  coast  of  Hamakua,  Ha- 
waii. He  again  sought  to  keep  the  women  from  his  crew, 
but  discovered  that  they  were  already  infected  with  the  mal- 
ady. So  promiscuous  were  the  habits  of  the  people,  that 
from  the  first  center  of  infection  at  Waimea,  the  malady  had 
in  nine  months,  spread  like  a  fire  to  the  other  extremity  of  the 
group.  This  again,  is  corroborated  by  the  information  ob- 
tained by  the  early  missionaries  as  to  the  spread  of  the  dis- 
ease. Dr.  Ellis  describes  in  words  undesirable  to  here  re- 
produce the  grossly  aggressive  and  impetuous  action  of  the 
females. 

It  was  the  universal  practice  of  ordinary  hospitality  to 
visitors,  to  supply  them  during  their  sojourn,  with  the 
women  of  the  family.  Such  a  matter-of-course  tender  was 
a  frequent  cause  of  annoyance  to  the  early  missionaries  in 
their. tours  in  remoter  districts,  enjoying  the  cordial  hospi- 
tality of  the  most  well-to-do  people  in  their  neat  thatched 
cottages.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  how  far  this  heathen 
custom  has  now  lapsed  into  disuse.  It  is  certainly  one  of 
the  old  customs  sought  to  be  maintained  and  revived  to- 
gether with  the  hulas  and  idolatrous  practices.  One  of  the 
painful  experiences  of  missionaries  in  the  out-districts,  was 
to  hear  of  this  practice  being  carried  out  in  the  chief  house- 
holds of  his  parish  when  some  great  man  came  along  with 
his  suite.  I  speak  from  repeated  personal  experience  as  a 
missionary  pastor. 

It  may  be  said  in  general  that  chastity  had  absolutely  no 
recognition.  It  was  simply  a  thing  unknown  and  unthought 
of  as  a  virtue  in  the  old  domestic  life  of  Hawaii.  A  woman 
who  withheld  herself  was  counted  sour  and  ungracious. 
This  did  not  exclude  more  or  less  of  marital  proprietorship, 
involving  an  invasion  of  the  husband's  right  in  enjoying  his 


property  without  his  consent.     There  was  no  impurity  in  it, 
any  more  than  among  brute  animals. 

There  was,  however,  a  salutary  limitation  of  some  im- 
portance in  a  frequent  stringent  guarding  of  early  virginity. 
Young  maidens  were  quite  commonly  put  under  tabu  for 
first  use  by  the  chief,  after  possession  by  whom  all  restric- 
tion ceased.  No  sense  of  a  sacredness  in  chastity  seems  to 
have  been  involved  in  this,  nor  any  sense  of  profanation  in 
the  contrar}'.  It  was  only  the  thought  of  a  special  choice- 
ness  in  an  article  that  was  fresh  and  unused.  In  the  tre- 
mendous disturbances  of  life  ensuing  upon  the  advent  of  the 
white  man,  even  this  solitary  restriction  perished. 

No  severe  moral  reprobation  is  due  to  the  primitive  Ha- 
waiian for  what  seems  to  have  been  an  ignorant  innocence  - 
of  easy,  promiscuous  living,  like  the  free  life  of  animals, 
without  sense  of  evil.  None  the  less  must  we  deem  this 
social  condition  more  than  any  other  to  have  incapacitated 
the  Hawaiians  from  holding  their  own  after  the  advent  of 
the  white  man.  During  the  simplicity  of  aboriginal  life,  and 
in  the  total  absence  of  sexual  diseases,  the  evils  resulting 
from  promiscuous  intercourse  would  be  minimized.  Pro- 
creative  force  remained  largely  in  excess  of  mortality,  so 
that  the  teeming  population  was  kept  down  by  infanticide. 
But  to  the  malady  which  the  white  man  imported,  the  un- 
guarded social  condition  was  as  tow  to  the  flame.  The 
scorching  and  withering  disease  ran  like  wildfire  through  the 
nation.  Multitudes  died  at  once,  while  the  survivors  re- 
mained with  poisoned  bodies  and  enfeebled  constitutions. 

A  general  impairment  of  constitutional  vigor  in  the  people 
by  venereal  disease  caused  them  to  fall  early  victims  to  other 
maladies,  both  native  and  foreign.  All  diseases  ran  riot  in 
their  shattered  constitutions.  They  became  especially  inca- 
pacitated to  resist  pulmonary  maladies.  The  greatly  in- 
creased prevalence  of  colds  and  consumption  is  doubtless 
due  to  this  syphilitic  diathesis,  rather  than  to  change  of 
habits  as  to  clothing,  although  the  latter  may  have  had  some 
unfavorable  eftect.  Probably  the  pestilence  called  Okuii, 
whatever  its  nature,  which  carried  off  such  a  bulk  of  the 
population  in  1804,  owed  most  of  its  virulence  to  the  im- 
paired physique  of  the  people. 

Another  destructive  effect  of  the  syphilitic  taint  is  believed 
to  have  been  an  inflaming  of  sexual  passion.      It  may  have 


acted  as  a  ferment  thrown  into  the  former  more  quiet  pool 
of  promiscuous  social  living.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  advent  of  foreigners  in  large  numbers  was  attended  by 
an  immense  increase  of  debased  and  bestial  living.  Ten 
thousand  reckless  seamen  of  the  whaling  fleet  annually  fre- 
quented these  islands  and  used  it  as  their  great  brothel. 
This  enormously  aggravated  and  inflamed  the  normal  un- 
chastity  of  the  people.  In  the  presence  of  the  white  hordes 
life  became  hideously  brutalized.  To  multitudes  of  young 
women,  gathered  into  the  seaports  for  profit,  from  half  the 
households  in  the  country,  life  became  a  continuous  orgie  of 
beastly  excess.  All  the  former  slender  limitations  and  re- 
strictions upon  an  indiscriminate  commerce  fell  to  pieces. 
The  stormy  and  reckless  passion  of  the  white  man,  exulting 
in  his  unwonted  license,  imparted  itself  to  the  warm  but 
sluggish  Hawaiian  nature.  Life  became  a  wasteful  riot  of 
impurity,  propagated  from  the  seaports  to  the  end  of  the 
land.  There  was  thus  no  defense  against  the  new  and  try- 
ing conditions  of  life  through  any  existing  sentiment  of  the 
sacredness  of  chastity.  The  inevitable  consequence  was  de- 
population. The  population  of  brothels  and  slums  has  no 
internal  power  of  multiplying. 

In  the  Report  on  the  subject  of  Purity  adopted  by  the  144 
Bishops  convened  in  the  late  Pan-Anglican  Conference  at 
Lambeth  Palace,  are  the  following  words;  "We  solemnly 
record  our  conviction  that  wherever  marriage  is  dishonored, 
and  sins  of  the  flesh  are  lightl}^  regarded,  the  home  life -will 
be  destroyed,  and  the  nation  itself  will  sooner  or  later,  decay 
and  perish."  The  source  of  this  language  will  lend  it  great 
weight.  The  Hawaiian  nation  is  a  sad  witness  to  their 
truth. 

One  of  the  most  destructive  consequences  of  the  new  phy- 
sical taint  was  the  enfeeblement  of  infancy,  rendering  it 
difficult  for  the  diseased  babes  to  survive  the  ignorant  and 
careless  dealing  of  their  nurses.  The  largest  increase  in  the 
mortality  of  the  Hawaiians  was  undoubtedly  among  their 
infants.  The  external  influences  adverse  to  infant  survival 
among  Hawaiians  are  very  great.  Chief  among  these  are 
the  practice  of  feeding  with  unsuitable  nutriment  in  early 
infancy,  the  prevalence  of  unchecked  cutaneous  maladies, 
general  lack  of  watchful  care,  and  evil  doses  administered 
by  ignorant  or  superstitious  friends.  Healthy  and  vigorous 
infants,  as  of  the  old  times,  would  in  good  numbers,  survive  all 


these  hostile  conditions.  Those  born  into  the  taint  of  syphi- 
Hs,  with  its  inward  and  outward  corrosions,  had  Httle  pros- 
pect of  surviving  other  maltreatments,  unless  some  mis- 
sionary or  other  beneficent  foreigner  came  to  their  aid  with 
his  simple  regimen  and  alleviations. 

Under  this  general  head  of  Unchastity,  as  the  chief  cause 
of  the  depletion  of  the  race,  a  considerable  share  must  be  at- 
tributed to  the  extensive  loss  of  procreative  power  in  the 
males.'  This  loss  was  probably  due  in  part  to  syphilitic 
taint,  but  is  mainly  owing  to  early  sexual  excess  during 
puberty.  In  the  aboriginal  condition,  there  would  seem 
to  have  been  less  tendency  to  very  early  indulgence  among 
the  males.  The  nervous  irritations  of  the  S3'philitic  taint, 
and  the  exciting  excesses  pervading  native  society,  may 
have  been  causes  extending  debauching  influences  even  to 
the  children.  It  is  certain'  that  in  many  districts,  deplora- 
ble excesses  have  been  found  to  exist  among  the  school 
children.  It  seems  to  be  true  that  a  majority  of  young  Ha- 
waiian men  never  have  children.  Those  placed  earl}'  under 
the  discipline  of  foreigners,  in  boarding  schools  or  otherwise 
show  exceptions  to  the  common  rule.  The  incapacity 
seems  to  be  mainly  on  the  part  of  the  males.  Young 
women  united  to  Chinamen  or  white  men  are  usually  quite 
as  fruitful  as  women  of  other  races.  Per  contra,  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  such  men  are  apt  to  select  the  best  conditioned 
females,  also  that  they  are  accustomed  to  restrain  and  to 
protect  their  wives,  as  Hawaiians  do  not,  and  so  keep  them 
in  healthier  condition. 

The  common  record  of  Hawaiian  families  is,  few  or  no  chil- 
dren born,  or  perhaps  several  born,  most  or  all  of  whom  die  in 
infancy.  Itisexceedingly  rare  to  find  a  large  family  surviving  to 
adult  age.  Nearly  all  such  that  I  have  known  were  families  un- 
der the  immediate  and  very  parental  control  of  some  missionary, 
with  whom  the  parents  had  lived  from  early  youth,  learning 
habits  of  industry,  self-control,  and  civilized  domestic  living. 
They  were  themselves  kept  in  vigor  and  health,  their  chil- 
dren were  well  cared  for,  and  well  doctored  in  sickness. 
Natives  so  situated  very  frequently  not  only  raised  large 
families,  but  by  means  of  their  superior  industry,  skill  and 
thrift,  acquired  considerable  substance.  Being  thereby 
placed  in  a  high  social  rank  among  their  countrymen,  it  has 
too  commonly  resulted,  that  most  of  their  children  became 


dissolute,  like  the  children  of  the  wealthy  elsewhere,  and  the 
family  failed  to  be  continued. 

Among  other  disastrous  effects  of  the  universal  syphilitic 
taint  was  the  frequency  of  miscarriages.  It  has  been  the 
testimony  of  missionaries  and  physicians,  that  a  very  con- 
siderable proportion  of  native  births  have  been  prevented  by 
that  cause.  In  my  inquiries  in  native  households,  this  has 
been  assigned  as  frequently  as  any  other,  as  the  cause  of 
the  absence  of  children.  To  make  such  inquiries  is  indeed 
melancholy.  One  becomes  glad  to  hear  that  even  one  or 
two  children  are  surviving  in  a  household. 

Abortion  is  often  attributed  to  active  horseback  exercise 
during  pregnancy.  As  native  females  used  to  be  contin- 
ually 5-alloping  about,  no  doubt  this  has  contributed  to 
the  evil  since  1H50,  when  the  common  people  began  gen- 
erally to  possess  horses.  With  the  development  of  good 
roads,  wheels  are  now  coming  into  very  common  use  by  all 
classes. 

2.  Drunkenness.  This  should  be  assigned  to  no  incon-" 
siderable  place  among  disabling  conditions.  Before  the  haole 
arrived,  the  favorite  narcotic  was  mva  {piper  methysticiun) 
more  commonly  known  throughout  Oceanica  as  kava.  A 
beer  of  some  strength  was  made  by  fermenting  sweet  pota- 
to. The  sirupy  Ki-root  [Drac(ena  Ti)  was  also  macerated 
and  fermented,  becoming  still  more  alcoholic  than  the  pota- 
to. This  was  less  acceptable,  tending  to  produce  irascibili- 
ty, while  the  sour  potato  swill  only  inflamed  sexuality.  No 
great  orgies  of  drunkenness  resulted  from  the  use  of  any  of 
the  foregoing.  The  vice  existed  only  in  mild  forms.  Awa 
in  excess  tended  to  waste  and  paralyze  the  system. 

With  the  foreigner  came  the  products  of  the  still.  Only 
then  did  drunkenness  begin  to  reign.  Drunken  orgies 
were  an  essential  part  of  the  beach-combers  paradise  on 
Hawaiian  shores.  He  found  the  Hawaiian  an  apt  disciple, 
save  that  like  all  savages,  he  did  not  know  how  to  stop. 
The  story  of  the  early  missionaries  is  one  of  constant  im- 
pediment in  their  labors  from  the  inebriety  of  the  King  and 
Chiefs,  and  of  frequent  annoyance  and  disturbance  from  the 
riotous  orgies  of  the  common  people.  While  Kamehameha 
lived,  he  put  considerable  check  upon  both  his  people  and 
himself  as  to  temperance.  His  youthful  successor,  Li- 
holiho,  plunged,  with  his  people,  into  a  carnival  of  excess. 

The    contribution    of  drunkenness   to    depopulation  was 


9 

mainly  indirect,  although  powerful.  It  tended  to  overturn 
and  destroy  whatever  remains  of  wholesome  social  order 
and  domestic  life  survived  the  general  wreck  consequent 
upon  foreign  intercourse.  It  stimulated  the  passions ;  it 
solved  the  remaining  bonds  of  self-restraint;  it  flung  pru- 
dence to  the  winds  ;  thus  it  enhanced  the  effectiveness  of 
the  causes  previously  described.  Intemperance  is  always  a 
chief  ally  of  impurity.  The  gin-mill  and  the  brothel  are 
close  partners. 

3.  Opj>ression  by  the  Chiefs.  There  was  a  considerable 
mortality  during  the  first  quarter  of  this  century,  when  the 
sandal-wood  trade  was  active,  caused  by  the  heavy  exactions 
of  the  King  and  Chiefs  upon  the  common  people  to  procure 
this  precious  commodity,  wherewith  to  liquidate  their  im- 
mense debts  to  the  traders,  incurred  for  yachts  and  costly 
luxuries.  Great  numbers  of  men  were  driven  into  the  moun- 
tains upon  this  errand,  passing  many  nights  in  cold  and  rain 
with  slight  protection  and  little  food.  The  result  was  great 
waste  of  life,  and  the  almost  entire  extirpation  of  the  precio/ds 
tree..  Other  severe  exactions  of  labor  were  common.  Qi'tat 
levies  of  labor  and  supplies  were  frequently  made  at  a  chief's 
caprice  from  the  tenants  uf  remote  estates,  to  be  brought  to 
the  island  capital.  This  was  an  evil  much  increased  by  the 
temptations  of  foreign  trade.  No  doubt  it  materially  con- 
tributed to  the  decimation  of  the  people.  Oppression  by 
chiefs  has  ceased  to  be  an  operative  cause  for  nearly  half  a 
century,  or  since  Constitutional  government  began  to  exist. 

4.  Infectious  and  Epidemic  Diseases.  These  have  largely 
added  to  the  destruction  of  the  population.  There  seems  to 
be  good  reason  for  accepting  the  theorj^  that  new  diseases 
attack  with  more  severity  and  greater  fatality  races  who  are 
unaccustomed  to  them  or  to  their  like.  No  doubt  any  race 
becomes  in  time  somewhat  hardened  to  the  diseases  which 
infest  it,  the  weaker  and  more  susceptible  individuals  being 
weeded  out,  and  the  hardier  ones  transmitting  their  resisting 
power  to  descendants. 

Measles  first  appeared  here  in  1849.  Great  numbers  died 
in  all  parts  of  the  group.  The  excess  of  mortality  was  at- 
tributed to  the  patients'  bathing  in  order  to  alleviate  the  ex- 
ternal heat  and  irritation  of  the  malady. 

Small-pox  first  arrived  in  1853.     Before  vaccination  could 


10 

be  efficiently  administered  to  the  natives,  the  infection  had 
spread  over  the  Island  of  Oahu,  and  one-half,  or  15,000,  of 
the  people  on  that  island  perished  in  a  few  weeks.  After 
their  manner,  the}^  rushed  to  visit  their  friends  when  at- 
tacked by  the  disease.  Isolation  and  precaution  against  in- 
fection is  foreign  to  their  natures.  By  the  energy  of  the  then 
"missionary"  government  quarantine  measures  were  vigor- 
ously enforced  on  the  other  islands,  and  the  people  thor- 
oughly vaccinated,  so  that  only  a  few  hundred  deaths  oc- 
curred. Foreigners  were  all  promptly  vaccinated,  and  nearly 
all  escaped. 

Malarial  and  other  epidemics  have  been  repeatedly  intro- 
duced, and  from  time  to  time  have  produced  extensive  mor- 
tality among  the  natives.  The  admirable  climate,  with  its 
sea-air  and  the  ozone  of  the  mountain  land-breezes,  seemed 
in  each  case  rapidly  to  mitigate  the  virulence  with  which 
earlier  cases  of  the  new  malady  would  be  characterized,  later 
cases  assuming  milder  forms,  until  the  disease  seemed  to 
slowly  die  out.  This  was  very  marked  in  the  instance  of 
what  was  known  as  the  "  Boo-hoo"  fever,  which  attacked 
all  newly  arrived  foreigners.  It  was  quite  severe  at  its  first 
appearance  in  1851,  but  by  1857  had  become  a  very  trifling 
malady. 

Leprosy  has  been  something  of  a  scourge.  Probably  4,000 
lepers  have  died  in  these  islands  during  the  past  thirty  years. 
The  number  at  present  suffering  from  the  disease  cannot  be 
more  than  1,500,  or  four  per  cent,  of  the  native  population. 
For  more  than  a  year,  or  since  the  end  of  1887,  there  has 
been  a  radical  improvement  in  the  work  of  segregating  the 
lepers.  There  seems  reason  to  believe  that  soon  nearly  every 
leper  will  have  been  removed  to  the  excellent  asylum  at 
Molokai.  The  lepers  are  nearly  all  natives.  The  disease 
very  rarely  appears  among  the  white  or  the  Mongolian  races 
livmg  here,  owing  to  their  carefully  avoiding  intercourse  with 
lepers.  Hawaiians,  on  the  contrary,  mingle  freely  with  lepers, 
in  the  most  intimate  daily  intercourse.  They  commonly  re- 
gard the  segregation  of  their  leprous  relatives  as  a  cruel  and 
uncalled  for  severity.  This  is  only  one  illustration  of  the 
habitual  indifference  of  this  people  to  sanitation,  whether  in 
physics  or  in  morals. 

Indeed,  the  idea  of  disease  being  a  product    of   natural 


11 

agencies,  and  a  thing  to  be  averted  by  ph)'sical  preventives, 
seems  to  be  one  quite  foreign  to  the  Hawaiian's  mind,  and 
contrary  to  his  mode  of  thought.  In  common  with  other 
uncivihzed  races  the  world  over,  they  were  accustomed  to 
attribute  all  diseases  to  the  immediate  agency  of  some  per- 
sonal demon,  who  enters  the  patient  and  malignantly  dis- 
tresses and  destroys  him.  This  brings  us  to  another,  and 
one  of  the  most  destructive  of  the  agencies  contributing  to 
the  diminution  of  the  Hawaiian  people. 

5.  Kahunas  and  Sonoy.  The  kahuna  is  the  medicine 
man.  He  is  properly  a  sorcerer  or  wizard,  whose  chief  re- 
liance for  the  relief  of  disease  is  the  employment  of  super- 
natural agencies,  although  he  will  also  perhaps  use  drugs 
and  hygienic  treatment.  From  ancient  times  these  men 
and  their  arts  have  been  powerful  agencies  of  death,  al- 
though not  seldom  effecting  a  species  of  "faith  cure."  When 
a  Hawaiian  is  ill,  his  superstitions  relatives  and  friends  im- 
mediately seek  to  persuade  him  that  his  sickness  is  owing  to 
the  malign  presence  of  some  demon,  who  must  either  be 
propitiated  or  expelled  by  force.  Some  kahuna  is  called  in 
to  accomplish  this  object.  He  is  believed  to  enjoy  special 
power  with  some  patron  demon,  who  may  be  the  one  need- 
ing to  be  propitiated,  or  whose  agency  may  be  called  in  to 
expel  and  ovecome  the  perhaps  less  powerful  agent  of  the 
disease.  If  one  kahuna  proves  insufficient  to  the  task,  others 
must  be  found  who  possess  the  special  influence  needed. 
The  processes  employed  are  always  expensive  to  the  patient, 
and  very  commonly  quite  severe. 

There  are  sacrifices  of  pigs  and  fowls;  there  are  complex  ' 
incantations.  There  are  doubtless  various  efforts  allied  to 
mesmeric  or  hypnotic  phenomena.  Violent  sweatings  and 
purgings  are  frequently  used  to  promote  the  expulsion  of 
the  demon,  with  great  physical  severities  of  different  kinds, 
such  as  often  are  of  themselves  fatal  to  the  patient.  The 
tension  of  anxiety  and  dread  is  terrible  and  very  weakening. 
A  great  mortality  results  directly  from  this  violent  and  terrify- 
ing treatment.  Furthermore,  there  is  a  large  mortality 
caused  by  pure  mental  apprehension,  where  no  disease  ori- 
ginally existed.  The  sull'erer  is  told  that  a  sorcerer  is  at 
work  against  him ;  he  at  once  sickens,  and  is  prostrated,  and 
soon  dies.  Or  he  is  solemnly  warned  by  a  learned  kahuna 
that  he  has  symptoms  of  dangerous  disease  impending.     Or 


12 

he  is  conscious  of  having  committed  some  act,  such  as  the 
violation  of  a  vow,  which  has  offended  the  family  deity,  or 
numakua,  and  through  mental  apprehension,  the  same  effect 
of  sickening  ensues.  All  these  things  play  into  the  hands 
of  the  medicine  man,  bring  him  dupes  and  victims,  increase 
his  revenue,  and  multiply  the  mortality  of  the  people.  It  is 
difficult  to  determine  to  what  extent  these  superstitious 
agencies  are  still  at  work.  There  is  painful  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  their  activity  has  been  greatly  revived  of  late  years. 
There  is  much  ground  for  thinking  that  a  large  proportion 
of  the  more  intelligent  and  educated  Hawaiians,  when  they 
fall  ill,  are  prone  to  succumb  to  the  inherited  superstition. 
It  is  commonly  remarked  that  the  Hawaiian,  when  sick, 
shows  a  strange  lack  of  recuperative  power.  He  dies  easily. 
He  becomes  depressed  and  surrenders,  where  other  men 
would  recover.  Probably  in  most  such  cases,  the  cause  is 
his  superstitious  belief  in  a  demon,  whom  he  feels  working 
at  his  vitals,  and  whom  it  is  hopeless  to  resist.  • 

6.  Idolatry.  This  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
above-named  agency.  Its  chief  importance,  however,  in 
this  discussion,  is  in  its  character  as  the  most  efficient  of  all 
the  agencies  that  disorder  the  mental  and  debase  the  moral 
action  of  the  people,  and  which  frustrate  and  neutralize 
remedial  influences.  It  resembles  Drunkenness  in  this  re- 
spect, but  I  think  very  far  exceeds  it  in  its  evil  ethical 
efficiency. 

All  thinkers,  of  whatever  creed  or  type  of  skepticism,  con- 
sider a  people's  religion  to  have  an  immense  formative 
power  upon  them.  The  institutions,  the  customs,  and  the 
conduct  of  a  people  are  certain  to  be  shaped  and  patterned, 
m  a  great  degree,  after  whatever  embodiments  of  moral 
ideals  they  believe  in,  such  as  deified  heroes,  and  deities  of 
whatever  sort  whom  they  fear  and  worship.  If  the  gods  of 
any  nation,  like  those  of  early  Egypt,  are  understood  to  ex- 
ercise substantial  justice,  to  reward  virtue,  purity,  and  tem- 
perance, and  to  punish  vice,  treachery,  and  cruelty,  such  a 
nation  will  continue  to  cherish  the  higher,  and  to  despise 
the  baser  qualities.  Righteousness  has  the  sanction  of 
religion,  and  the  nation  grows  and  prospers.  The  Polythe- 
isms of  Egypt,  of  Greece,  of  Rome,  of  Chaldaea,  in  their 
earlier  and  less  corrupted  forms,  exalted  much  of  the  higher 
elements  of  character;  hence  a  good  degree  of  civilization 


13 

became  possible  under  these  religions.  This  was  also  true 
of  the  earlier  Brahminism  of  the  Vedas.  There  is  strong 
evidence  that  these  religions  were  all  corruptions  from  an 
original  Monotheism,  retaining  something  of  that  earlier 
religious  recognition  of  the  Righteousness  and  Benevolence 
of  the  Heaven-P'ather,  the  Dyaus-Pitar,  Zeus-Pater,  or 
Jupiter  of  the  Aryan  races.  It  is  most  noticeable  how,  from 
debased  races,  these  nations  imported  successively  the  wor- 
ship of  evil  gods — the  Baals,  Molochs,  Astartes,  Kalis,  gods 
of  lust,  cruelty,  falsehood,  debauchery.  These  fastened  as 
parasites  upon  the  earlier  and  cleaner  Polytheisms,  and  so 
corroded  and  poisoned  the  social  and  political  life  of  those 
great  nations. 

Whether,  as  Fornander  maintains,  any  traces  of  an  an- 
cient Monotheism  can  be  discerned  in  the  Polynesian  Pan- 
theon, may  be  considered  doubtful.  It  is  certain,  however, 
that  the  prevailing  characteristics  attributed  to  even  the 
highest  gods,  such  as  Fornander's  Trinity  of  Ku,  Kane,  and 
Kanaloa,  were  wretchedly  evil  and  unclean.  There  are  not 
merely  strong  tendencies  to  animalism  and  cruelty,  with 
frequent  lapses  into  crimes  of  lust  and  revenge,  such  as  dis- 
figure Greek  mytholog}-.  These  gods  of  the  Hawaiians  be- 
come absolute  embodiments  of  bestiality  and  malignity,  like 
Moloch  and  other  gods  of  the  Canaanites. 

The  impure  and  malignant  essence  of  Hawaiian  deities 
is  visibly  embodied  in  their  images.  In  contrast  to  the  per- 
sonal beauty  of  the  Greek  gods,  the  aim  and  the  effort  of  the 
carver  is  to  depict  an  extreme  of  malignity  and  sensualit3\ 
The  lineaments  are  made  as  revolting  and  horrific  as  the 
artist  can  combme  them  from  vicious  types  of  animal 
savagery,  such  as  the  shark  or  the  boar.  The  first  impres- 
sion is  a  just  one,  that  a  people  who  worshipped  such  deities 
as  these  images  represent  could  not  be  otherwise  than  pro- 
foundly perverted  in  their  ethical  sentiments. 

The  various  legends  of  the  chief  gods  abound  in  attributes 
of  the  most  excessive  bestiality.  They  are  generally  in- 
capable of  being  printed  without  extensive  expurgation.  A 
loathsome  filthiness  is  not  mere  incident,  but  forms  the 
groundwork  of  character,  not  merely  of  the  great  hog-god 
Kamapuaa,  but  even  of  the  more  human-like  Ku  and  Kane 
of  the  chief  Trinity. 

The  moral  ideas  of  the  worshippers  of  such  gods  could 


u 

not  fail  to  suffer  extreme  perversion..  Justice  and  Purity 
were  in  contempt.  Cruelty  and  Lust  were  exalted  into 
religion.  The  late  Matthew  Arnold,  eliminating  personality 
from  the  idea  of  the  God  of  Christendom,  defined  Deity  as 
"The  Stream  of  Tendency  in  the  Universe  that  makes  for 
Righteousness."  If  we  could  eliminate  these  horrific  per- 
sonalities from  the  Hawaiian  Pantheon,  we  might  well 
count  the  ideal  residuum  to  stand  for  the  stream  of  tendency 
that  makes  for  all  wickedness.  It  was  an  embodied 
Diabolism. 

As  a  shaping  force  upon  character,  and  a  moving  force 
upon  conduct,  this  diabolic  religion  takes  its  energy  from 
Sorcery.  Sorcery  brings  these  evil  gods  down  as  living 
active  powers  interposing  in  all  circumstances  of  life.  By 
the  arts  of  the  kahunas  the  people  were  held,  and,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  are  still  held,  in  habitual  fear  of  these 
powerful  gods  and  their  subordinate  demons.  Their  lives 
are  continually  threatened  by  them.  Every  internal  sense 
of  illness  is  the  deadly  touch,  sensibly  felt,  of  a  god.  So 
the  people  were  held  in  abject  slavery  to  their  gods,  and  to 
the  priests  who  could  influence  them.  Slaves  to  such  un- 
clean beings,  they  tend  to  be  like  them;  their  moral  senti- 
ments arS  overturned ;  evil  becomes  good,  and  good  evil. 
Lewdness,  prostitution,  indecency,  drunkenness,  being  god- 
like, are  exalted  into  virtues.  Recent  practical  illustrations 
of  this  are  not  lacking. 

One  of  the  foul  florescences  of  this  great  poison  tree  of 
Idolatry  is  the  Hula.  This  is  most  intimately  connected 
with  the  whole  system,  and  forms  an  essential  part  of  its 
services,  just  as  Sacred  Music  does  of  Christian  worship. 
The  hula  dances  are  habitually  idolatrous  in  practice,  hav- 
ing their  special  patron  gods,  whom  the  dancers  invoke  and 
worship.  The  chief  posturings  and  movements  of  the  hulas 
are  pantomimes  of  unnameable  lewdness,  illustrated  and 
varied  with  elaborate  art,  and  accompanied  with  chants  of 
unspeakable  foulness  of  diction  and  description.  This  is 
the  Sacred  Music  of  Idolatry,  its  Opera  and  its  Drama. 
The  multitudes  of  men,  women  and  children  who  throng  to 
these  royal  hula-operas  there  drink  in  the  heathen  ethics  of 
social  life  in  unmitigated  directness  and  grossness,  made 
sensational  with  vivid  pantomime  of  beastliness,  and  em- 
bellished with  foul  wit  and  jest  in  song,  extolling  and  dram- 


15 

atizing  impurity.  Against  such  schooling,  it  must  be  a 
powerful  civilizing  force  that  can  make  head  and  redeem 
any  Hawaiian  homes  from  becoming  brothels. 

7.  Wifeless  Chinese.  This  is  an  evil  of  recent  growth, 
which  acts  most  perniciously  upon  the  social  life  of  Hawaii- 
ans.  There  are  some  20,000  Chinamen  of  the  lowest  class, 
without  their  women,  distributed  throughout  the  islands  in 
close  contact  with  the  natives,  and  in  many  districts  out- 
numbering the  Hawaiian  males.  The  effect  is  necessarily 
very  destructive  to  the  purity  of  native  families,  although 
not  more  so  than  the  presence  of  a  similar  number  of  un- 
married whites  would  be.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  many 
native  households  in  all  parts  of  the  country  are  maintained 
in  comparative  affluence  by  the  intimacy  of  Chinese  with 
their  females.  Some  of  the  heads  of  these  families  are 
members  in  good  standing  in  the  Protestant  churches, 
whose  easy-going  native  pastors  lack  the  energy  and  author- 
ity to  deal  with  the  offenders,  while  the  moral  sentiment 
prevailing  both  within  and  outside  of  the  church  is  too  feeble 
to  put  them  to  shame. 

The  catalogue  of  destructive  elements  making  for  the 
death  of  the  Hawaiian  people,  as  enumerated  above,  is  an 
appalling  one.  It  certainly  suffices  to  account  for  any 
amount  of  infertility  and  mortality.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  many  sanative  and  restorative  agencies  at  work, 
which  inspire  hope  for  the  repression  of  these  evils,  and 
afford  prospect  for  the  reinforcement  and  augmentation  of 
healing  agencies.      I  brief!}'  name  some  of  the  most  efficient: 

1.  Government  Medical  Aid.  Paid  physicians  are  with- 
in reach  of  most  of  the  people,  whose  services  to  them  are 
free  of  charge.  Their  help  should  save  many  more  lives 
than  they  do,  or  than  they  will,  so  long  as  the  people  are 
taught  Idolatry,  and  to  trust  in  the  kahunas.  It  is  not  in 
itself  a  very  easy  thing  for  a  skilled  physician  to  gain  the 
confidence  of  the  native  people  in  the  degree  that  he  needs 
for  any  considerable  success.  It  is  nearly  impossible  for 
him  to  do  so,  when  contending  as  he  generally  is  with  active 
superstition  in  the  minds  of  his  patients,  and  their  friends, 
and  with  the  army  of  kahunas  working  with  all  their  arts 
against  him.  His  prescriptions  will  very  commonly  be 
neglected,  and  his  injunctions  disobeyed. 

I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  a  hearty  reception  by 


16 

the  Hawaiian  people  of  the  medical  aid  now  provided,  dis- 
carding their  kahunas,  would  at  once  cause  births  to  pre- 
ponderate over  deaths. 

2.  Hygienic  Instruction.  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of 
instruction  given  upon  the  laws  of  health  and  simple  re- 
medial treatment  in  the  schools  and  churches,  and  by  means 
of  books.  Dr.  Judd's  translation  of  Cutter's  Anatomy  and 
Physiology  was  printed  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  and  used  as 
a  text  book  in  the  leading  high  school.  Such  instruction 
has  done  great  service.  It  has  proved  insufficient,  however, 
to  make  head  against  the  inveterate  belief  in  the  supernatural 
cause  of  disease.  It  is  likel}'  to  continue  inadequate,  so  long 
as  the  kahunas  are  encouraged  to  ply  their  arts. 

3.  ScJiool  Education.  Book  knowledge,  and  even  the 
much  vaunted  education  in  English,  have  sadly  failed  to 
arm  Hawaiians  against  succumbing  to  superstition  and  its 
kindred  impurity,  either  in  the  ranks  of  the  lowly  or  the 
lofty. 

Domestic  and  Industrial  Training  in  boarding  schools  has 
accomplished  much  more,  and  is  doing  excellent  work  for  ' 
both  sexes,  by  their  practical  training  in  the  ethics,  the  con- 
duct, and  the  industry  of  Christian  civilization.  Several 
hundred  youth  of  each  sex  are  now  enjoying  the  advantages 
of  such  schools  conducted  by  Protestants,  Anglicans,  and 
Catholics.  Adversely,  the  youth  who  go  out  of  these 
schools  are  at  once  plunged  into  a  sea  of  indescribable 
temptation.  Yet  much  of  our  best  hopes  for  the  future  of 
the  race  is  in  the  increasing  numbers  of  these  well-trained 
Hawaiians.  They  tend  to  form  an  elevated  and  civilized 
social  class  of  their  own.  This  is  opposed  and  disintegrated 
by  a  Hawaiian  social  leadership,  whose  tendencies  are  all 
adverse. 

4.  Christian  Instruction  will  continue  to  be  regarded  by 
earnest' believers  in  Christianity  as  the  chief  effective  agency 
in  healing  the  nation's  maladies.  They  hold  that  Faith  in 
Christ  has  power  to  emancipate  from  fear  of  demon-gods: 
they  believe  that  the  implanting  of  the  high  ideal  of  right- 
eousness of  which  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  source,  will 
in  the  end  erect  in  all  minds  a  standard  of  integrity  and 
purity  which  will  be  more  effectual  than  anything  else 
in  securing  moral  and  healthy  living  among  the  people. 
Probably  the  most  of  the  many  true  and  earnest  friends  of 


17 

right  living  who  do  not  accept  the  supernatural  element  of 
Christian  doctrine  would  agree  that  for  the  Hawaiian,  in  his 
present  mental  stage  of  development,  such  a  faith  would  be 
a  more  efficient  antidote  than  any  scientific  or  philosophical 
teaching  could  be. 

If  it  be  asked  why  sixty-eight  years  of  Christian  teaching 
has  not  availed  to  lift  the  Hawaiian  people  out  of  the  mire 
of  impure  living,  if  it  be  thus  efficacious,  its  teachers  would 
point  to  the  great  increase  of  adverse  influences  for  the  last 
thirty  years,  and  to  the  direct  fostering  of  sorcery  and  Jiiilas 
by  authority  during  that  time,  and  latterly  to  the  promotion 
of  hardly  concealed  worship  of  the  gods.  They  would  also 
point  to  the  immense  growth  of  foreign  elements  whose  un- 
favorable influence  has  been  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the 
Chinese.  They  would  also  call  special  attention  to  the  fact 
that,  during  the  period  of  powerful  missionary  ascendancy, 
say  from  1833  to  1853,  while  nearly  the  whole  people  be- 
came nominal  adherents  of  Christianity,  only  a  minority  be- 
come actual  members  of  the  churches,  while  the  great 
majority,  although  outwardly  assenting,  remained  wedded 
to  their  habitual  vice,  and  secretly  to  their  superstitions,  and 
that  the  more  Christian  minority  gave  place  by  death  to  an- 
other generation  far  less  strongly  impressed  and  less  fervid 
in  religious  interest. 

In  accordance  with  the  foregoing  statement  of  facts,  as  I 
clearly  understand  them,  and  whose  substantial  correctness 
I  think  cannot  be  gainsaid,  there  seems  to  be  no  radical 
remedy  for  the  two  great  causes  of  infertility  and  mortality, 
viz:  Unchastity  and  Sorcery,  except  a  system  of  vigorously 
extirpating  those  two  allied  agencies  in  which  they  generate 
and  are  nourished,  the  Hulas  and  the  Kahniuis.  Both  are 
purely  heathen  institutions  of  the  most  pronounced  and  de- 
testable type,  and  are  totally  incompatible  with  any  true  and 
wholesome  civilization.  They  should  both  be  hunted  down 
and  exterminated  like  the  venomous  reptiles  that  they  are, 
poisoning  and  slaying  the  people.  Until  this  is  done  with 
determined  thoroughness,  I  see  little  prospect  of  arresting 
the  decrease  of  the  Hawaiian  people. 

The  Hawaiian  Race  is  one  that  is  well  worth  saving. 
With  all  their  sad  frailties,  they  are  a  noble  race  of  men, 
physically  and  morally.  They  are  manly,  courageous,  enter- 
prising, cordial,  generous,  unselfish.  They  are  highly 
receptive  of  good.     They  love  to  look  torward  and  upward. 


UNIVERSITY  or  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles  / 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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AA    000  575  439    5 


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